Concrete vehicles or trucks are commonly employed in construction to mix, transport and pour concrete. They can be a rear discharge concrete vehicles or a front discharge concrete vehicle. The front discharge concrete vehicle includes a drum with an outlet generally supported above a cab enclosure of the vehicle to enable concrete to be discharged and poured through a chute extending forward the vehicle. Because the vehicle discharges concrete at its forward end, the vehicle is better able to supply concrete to locations having limited access. Concrete can also be mixed and poured from stationary facilities, typically referred to as a concrete mixing plants.
Existing concrete chutes used with concrete transport vehicles or with stationary concrete mixing plants, are typically made of steel with and without reinforcing members. Such chutes are heavy and difficult to manipulate. Also, chutes associated with cement trucks and cement plants are subject to a great deal of wear and tear not only by the impact and abrasion resulting from the movement of the concrete or other fluent materials, but also by the impact of other machinery and equipment. In response to such conditions, chutes have been developed that have a liner attached in the chute to ameliorate the abrasion and impact conditions experienced by the chute during their use. Prior art devices typically will bolt or otherwise fasten the liner to the chute in order to maintain the liner within the chute throughout the chute's operational positions. Problems continue to exist, however, in that the fasteners wear as the concrete moves over the fasteners, and the fasteners are subject to corrosion and rust either from the chemical composition of the concrete or from the fluids used to clean the chutes such as water and hydrochloric acid. Other prior art liners have been laminated to the chute in order to avoid the wear and corrosion of hardware described above. However, the laminated liners, experience different thermal expansion characteristics which causes stress and cracks that allows concrete and other fluent materials to attack the chute. Also, laminated liners cannot be easily replaced or repaired and typically a new chute is required. Other prior art chutes composed of materials other than metal and with or without liners have also been used. However, such chutes are not as resilient to the conditions they are exposed to and further cracking and breaking requires replacement of the entire chute.
Thus, there is a need for a light weight but strong extension concrete chute for use with concrete transportation vehicles or cement mix plants. There is further need for an extension concrete chute with a liner that is not fastened to the chute with fasteners nor laminated to the chute. There is an additional need for an extension concrete chute that supports a removable liner that can be easily replaced.